So I thought I’d write out my birth story here, maybe it’ll give some hope to those still waiting because I had zero signs of labour and then baby was here! Here’s hoping all those with sweeps coming up are successful!!
So Wednesday morning around 7:45 I woke up having to pee (as per usual) and as I was walking to the bathroom I kept peeing myself as I walked - I’m like holding myself saying stoooop I’ll be in the bathroom soon!! Haha, then I sit on the toilet and all the ‘pee’ comes out, so I smell my underwear and it doesn’t smell like pee - then I proceed to actually empty a full bladder in the toilet. When I wiped I got a huge bloody show, lots of mucus (mm, lovely), and I realize it was my water that broke!
So I call DH and tell him, so we get all excited and I think ok, contractions are going to start soon (panic!), but nothing happens so we played a board game until 9am when I could call my midwife. She tells me to go in and get checked, so we head to the hospital around 10am and they did an NST and swabbed for amniotic fluid. It kept coming back as ‘inconclusive’ so the midwife did a cervical check and said it was too high to reach, but as she pulled her hand out another huge gush of fluid came out and when they tested that it was def my water. So they said go home and come back at 8pm if you haven’t gone into labour.
We got a Tim Hortons sandwich on the way home, and we went for a big walk around the dyke near our house; then I told DH to go buy an exercise ball for me to bounce on and I did that for a while. Then I took a nap for an hour. All this time there was nothing going on.
Finally we went back to the hospital at 8pm and they did another NST, checked my cervix again and it was so high up and 1cm. I think my cervix score (can’t remember the actual name)was only a 2. So they inserted the prostaglandin gel and monitored me for an hour, then sent me home.
I was super crampy from the gel which was very uncomfortable, and I tried getting some sleep but the cramping was so bad. Around 1am the cramping started giving me a break in between - and I realized contractions were starting. So I just laid in bed and squeezed DH’s hand every time I felt one, and from the get go they were 40 seconds long every 90 seconds. They started getting more painful so I hopped in the shower and DH called the hospital who said we could come in if we wanted, but it was probably still too early. Anyway DH was kind of panicking so we left around 2:30 for the hospital.
Another NST test showed regular contractions, and the doctor came down and said yeah looks like early labour so there’s probably no cervical change, I’ll check just in case but you’ll probably have to go home and come back at 8am. He checks it, almost gives up because he can’t reach - then finally he feels it and is like oh! You’re at 4cm! You’re in active labour so you can stay here, we’ll admit you. Meanwhile I’m like shoot I thought I’d be at least 6cm
Now it’s about 4:30am, and they transfer me to the labour and delivery room. This whole time I’m totally fine, walking, breathing through contractions etc. Then I get into the room, try and pee (can’t) and get into the bed. Then it was like BAM super intense contractions right on top of each other. I start getting louder until I’m screaming and probably waking up the whole floor - and DH says this lasted about 10 contractions in a row approx 30 seconds each (so 5 minutes total) and then I needed to push.
The nurse was like no no we just checked you and you’re only 4cm and I’m like no I’m pushing now - and my body just starts doing it even though I wasn’t trying to! The midwife arrives at that exact moment and is like ok let me check you - and she says ok push!!
I pushed for 51 minutes, which was way longer than I thought it would take?? And it was exhausting. Using the birthing stool was ultimately what got the baby out. They had me feel his head once it had come out which was cool but also kind of gross? Haha
So the head was one push and the body was a 2nd push, but working him down was the hardest part. Then of course I had a big tear, and 3 different doctors came to look at it to decide what to do (after 5 separate shots in the vagina to numb me it was super painful), and they said you need surgery. This terrifies me so I’m like ummm no thanks. So they (I thought) very kindly offered to have the anesthetist come to the room and do it via a spinal block and I wouldn’t even have to go to the OR. This was def best case scenario, they gave a light spinal, I got to stay in the room with DH and the baby, and I checked Instagram while they put in the stitches! It took around an hour to fix me, and then I got more baby snuggles and everyone left me alone haha
So that was the story. Thankfully the hard part of labour was about an hour, and the other 4 hours were very manageable. The tearing actually didn’t hurt when it happened - just the recovery has been a bit tough. The worst part was that 5 minutes of what I presume was transition. I thought I was dying haha
But now it’s all over and Elias is doing really well.
So that’s the birth story, congrats if you read the whole thing
Can’t wait to read all of yours as they happen!
